Your Name: Jada James
Today’s Date: 1/29/20
Cognitive Biases and Heuristics Lab Worksheet
Step One: Complete the Questionnaire
Complete the following data sheet by recording at least 3 people’s (who are not enrolled in this class)
answers the following questions. After you have recorded their data, respond to Steps Two and Three.
Sample questions:
Participants
Example
1) Which is more common,
being killed by a shark or by
falling airplane parts?
Shark
Falling airplane
parts
2) Do more Americans die
from a) homicide and car
accidents, or b) diabetes and
stomach cancer?
Homicide and
car accidents
Diabetes and
stomach cancer
3) Which claims more lives in
the United States: lightning or
tornadoes?
lightning
tornadoes
4) Are there more words that
begin with “r” or that have “r”
as their third letter?
Begin with ‘r’
Have ‘r’ as their
third letter
P1
P2
P3
5) Thomas is short, slim, and
loves poetry. Which of the
following is most likely to be
Thomas’ occupation?
Truck driver
Professor of
Greek and
Classics
6) Mill is a nerd. He likes to
play video games, likes
building things, and doesn’t
have the highest social IQ.
Which of the following is most
likely to be Mill’s college
major?
Engineering
Psychology
7) Linda is 31 years old, single,
outspoken, and very bright.
She majored in philosophy. As
a student, she was deeply
concerned with issues of
discrimination and social
justice, and also participated
in anti-nuclear
demonstrations. Which of the
following is most likely to be
true about Linda?
She is a bank
teller
She is a bank
teller who is an
active feminist
Step Two: Once you have collected data, tally the correct and incorrect responses. State the
information below.
Type your answer here: the correct responses for the following questions are 1. falling airplane parts, 3.
lightening, 4. begin with r, 5. professor of greek and classics, 6. engineering, 7. she is a bank teller
Step Three: Explain any incorrect answers in terms of the availability and representativeness
heuristics. In your answer, here, be sure to define both heuristics and highlight the ways in which these
may have played a role in your participants’ answers.
Type your answer here: Availability heuristics is a mental shortcut that people rely on immediate
examples that come to a person mind when discussing a certain topic. Representativeness heuristics is
when someone is describing something to someone else and based on the similairty objets they use the
other person stereotypes the object. These played a major part in my participants answers because they
gave their answers based off what they previously saw or heard about that given topic. For example, the
question about lighteing and tornadoes you don't hear a lot about someone dying or being hurt by
lightening, you hear more about tornadoes deaths and distruction. So my participants automatically
assumed tonadoes was the correct answer.